I have a Windows XP Home edition installed on a machine that has 4 users:

  • a) administrator account
  • b) limited user account converted to administrator account later on
  • c,d) default administrator account and .NET account

The problem is that account b) disappeared from the list of users, although it still has its files and lucky enough having set the auto login to that user it logs in when you start windows.

But if you log out or look for that user in either User Accounts from Control Panel or userpasswords2 it will not show.

Where did it go? How can I make it visible again, please?

UPDATE: The user seems to have become a Guest account although guest accounts are turned off. I cannot see it in control userpasswords2 but I can see it in the System properties, User accounts window.

Thank you.

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In Control Panel > System, go to the Advanced tab, then click the Settings button in the User Profiles section. This should show the profiles for each user on the system. Does the user appear there? What does it show for Type and Status? – boot13 Sep 6 '10 at 14:07
Thank you. I'll take a look and come back with an answer. – Francisc Sep 6 '10 at 15:24
Hey! So, it shows as a guest account although Guest account is set to off. It was an administrator user before this as it did install a couple of software programs. I have no idea what happened and how that got to be a guest account. In the dialog windows you indictated Type and Status both say Local. Any clues on how I can restore this user or at least save all its data to another one? Thank you. – Francisc Sep 6 '10 at 17:46
You can try a system restore. and here's how to save a user account's data to a new account, except it's for Windows 7: windows.microsoft.com/en-AU/windows7/… Windows XP is bound to be similar. – Vervious Sep 6 '10 at 23:26
Thank you, I'll take a look. – Francisc Sep 7 '10 at 9:35
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migrated from serverfault.com Sep 6 '10 at 12:35

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